New Delhi, Mar 31 (PTI) The government will borrow Rs 4.88 lakh crore in the first half of fiscal 2020-21 starting April 1 to shore up resources amid a war it is wagging to contain economic fallout of coronavirus pandemic, DEA Secretary Atanu Chakraborty said on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in her budget for 2020-21 pegged gross borrowing in the new financial year at Rs 7.8 lakh crore, higher than Rs 7.1 lakh crore estimated in the current fiscal.

Gross borrowing includes repayments of past loans.

Presenting Budget for 2020-21, Sitharaman had said net market borrowing for the year 2019-20 would be Rs 4.99 lakh crore and for the year 2020-21, it would be Rs 5.36 lakh crore.

“A good part of the borrowings for the financial year 2020-21 would go towards the capital expenditure of the government that has been scaled up by more than 21 per cent.

“As I had previously mentioned another about Rs 22,000 crore have been allocated for equity to fund certain specified infrastructure finance companies, who would leverage it manifold and provide much-needed long-term finance to the infrastructure sector. That should spur growth impulses in the economy,” she had said on February 1.

The government raises funds from the market to fund its fiscal deficit through dated securities and treasury bills.

The Budget has pegged fiscal deficit at 3.5 per cent for the next fiscal, down from 3.8 per cent of the GDP in the current financial year.